James Dyson, the British inventor and Chief Engineer of the Dyson Company (see also Categories/Chairman?s Blog/Fairness/Job Creation in the right hand index column), writing in the Sunday Times of 16th January, 2011 on protection of Intellectual Property (IP) rights, knows that ideas, technology and exports are key to reshaping the British economy with, as in Germany, manufacturing (& not just financial services) the driving force for recovery. Manufacturing he defines as the generation of unique goods to patent and export, independent of the location of final assembly i.e. on the model of Apple and Dyson. He views as promising, therefore, for the next generation of British inventors, the technical schools initiated by the Conservative peer Lord Baker and e.g. the engineering academy opened by JCB, the British construction equipment company. Citing China as a key market offering British exporters major opportunities, he raises the issue of how to protect IP rights.
Dyson in common with other technology companies invests heavily in research and development, the associated financial risk partly offset if it can rely on its ideas and products being protected. Taking protective action around the world is expensive and time consuming, its value based on being able to enforce the rules, assuming each country plays by the same set of rules. However, a robust and solid European Union patent system is continually undermined by e.g. companies in China (and China is said to be the worst offender) which continue to ignore this and other patent protection systems, steal IP and thereby produce counterfeit goods.
China apparently has indicated that it would do more to improve IP protection, wanting to increase the number of patents it grants to 2 million by 2015. With proper enforcement of IP law China would also be a fairer and more hospitable trading environment for the Dyson Company. The Asian taskforce established before the November last visit of David Cameron to China, is proposed as having a crucial role to play in influencing action on fair , global trade by all parties involved.
Archive for février, 2011
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights
samedi, février 26th, 2011Quangos Bonfire
mardi, février 8th, 2011Before the election there was much Conservative party talk of a policy which was finally announced in government last October as a Bonfire of the Quangos (Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisations), aimed at abolishing 192 Quangos to save money (£1 billion was the target) and reduce the associated bureaucracy.
However, a report by the Commons Public Administration Committee issued in January 2011 has concluded that it could take over 10 years to make significant savings due to existing contractual commitments and rental leases. The Conservative Chairman of the Committee, Bernard Jenkin, views it also as a wasted opportunity to help build the Big Society (See Categories/Chairman?s Blog/Big Society in the right hand index column). He thinks that the responsibilities of an additional 118 Quangos which have been merged mostly into existing government departments, would have been better transferred instead to e.g. charities or mutual organisations, which would in turn have provided much more clearly identified public bodies for stakeholders and civil society to engage with.
Responding to criticisms of conflicting guidelines and ,therefore, inconsistent application Francis Maude, the Cabinet Minister, said the Quango overhaul was not a top-down exercise driven by the centre but a decentralised process led by departments with the overall aim being to increase accountability for State activities. Given the all-pervading influence of the Civil Service within these departments, it is perhaps not surprising that the Head of the Civil Service, Sir Gus O?Donnell, when giving evidence to the Committee was not able to give any estimate of how much will finally be saved, even when given the opportunity for more time to estimate this figure!